Last week, I made a Hoffman House Cocktail. Being easily confused, I then spent most of the week referring to it as a Holland House Cocktail.

Fortunately, there is a Holland House Cocktail, so it only seemed reasonable that I had a go at making one of them too.

(Both cocktails are named after bars or hotels in late 19th century Manhattan. Personally, if I was running a bar, I’d try to make sure my name was radically different from any rivals, but there you go…)

There are actually a number of different Holland House cocktail recipes, one of which uses genever, a Dutch gin (the ‘Holland’ in ‘Holland House’, presumably).

Instead of that, I’m using the version in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930. It’s very similar to the Aviation, but with pineapple taking the place of creme de violet.

I’m generally sceptical about pineapple in cocktails – it reminds me of the excesses of the 80’s when cocktails were all lurid colours and paper umbrellas. But it never hurts to try anything once…

Holland House (Craddock Version)

2 msr dry gin

3/4 msr dry vermouth

1/2 msr lemon juice

4 dashes maraschino

4 wedges pineapple

Muddle (mash) the pineapple pieces in the bottom of the cocktail shaker. You can buy cocktail muddlers to do this, but a wooden spoon will do. (Best not to try in a glass cocktail shaker though.)

Add the other ingredients to the shaker with ice, shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

The pineapple really works in this – it gives sweetness with a little sting, while there’s bitterness from the maraschino and sourness from the lemon. It’s a well-balanced and tasty cocktail.